This invention relates to machine-tool apparatus and has particular relationship to such apparatus for forming complex shapes in work by continuous-path cutting of the work. Typical of the work with which this invention is used to shape, referred to here in the interest of being concrete, is the turret ring on a military tank. In accordance with the teachings of the prior art, the turret ring is shaped manually by two machinists on a turn table which is essentially the chuck of a vertical lathe. The turret ring is mounted over the turn table. The turn table has a plurality of slides on which tools are mounted operable by the machinists to carry out the shaping. This operation is costly, but a more perplexing difficulty which has been experienced in this prior-art practice is that the machinists become dizzy by the rotation of the turn-table and fall off the table at times seriously injuring themselves.
Korenek U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,065 (FIG. 5) discloses apparatus for machining the inner surface of a semispherical lid in which a tool on a swiveling member on a frame moves along a track having the contour of a circular arc producing the semispherical machined surface. Korenek does not lend itself to the formation of complex shapes.
It is an object of this invention to overcome the above-described difficulties and disadvantages of the prior art and to provide apparatus for forming complex shapes in work by continuous-path cutting which apparatus shall not require personnel on a rotating table for performing cutting operations.